Try me as many. Students I believe you've just been listening to $3966.00 animated holiday special how the grant Stepaside all flicks coming to you from the studios of k p r g $89.00 f.m. Public Radio for sight and I'm your host Jason vast and I'm happy to welcome our listeners to this everyone had a lovely time last week at the Holiday Inn that holiday that most people call Thanksgiving but that I call by a variety of names including indigenous rights day or leave our land to London or most frequently and I think most appropriately gluttony today and it was certainly that for me which means that it was both relaxing and fulfilling as I think it was for my 3 co-hosts or join me here in studio somehow having managed to rouse themselves from the food coma into which they are last week so I thank them for being here 1st as always my friend and colleague from the University of warm School of Education Jackie Some of us Dr Jackie says Jackie welcome back to flex How was your holiday. Thank you for the welcome back I of course pig out quote unquote. Vegetarian turkey oh. That actually sounds fabulous Wow wonderful if that thing out yeah yeah yeah can you that we are picking out is not against it I thank you turn right. My only response to that is the word bacon. All right next up as always my friend and colleague my drinking buddy the redoubtable Di you know Thurber Diane welcome back to flex How have you been I think I know how you've done because we saw each other last Thursday Yes Yes Well and I'm just happy to be up and walking after that incredible meal was lovely don't it just pirates go every year it seems to get or you know do my right Jeff it was just an astonishing set of for absolutely it's as good as anything any on I mean those are establishing a spread of food and drink because we tried it all we did. We try to put a dent in it that's risky and of course that us and what about one quarter of the population of the island Yeah all right and that voice of course belongs to Jefferson Cronin the voice of a k p r g morning to the voice of k. Purity let's just call him what he was half a day thank you sir it's good to see you up and around because you and I both looked like we were going to make it home. To sleep in our cars for that's right yeah that's right we're all in a tent right there on the beach. Like yeah I want to work. Next year. Was it just that you know. Yes the inevitable Jeff replied Well just remarkable so awesome has a yes or yes to Jose the show off I mean where else can you get what was it to roast pigs and old dogs I mean unbelievable so that was their to make a movie about it you know that sure we should make a movie. Speaking of which instance is the sort of got we're going into the holiday season we thought that we would talk behind own Obree. Clearwater is songs novels stage plays puppet shows I don't care because when asked Jackie and I said What do you think we should start with and what should we have redundant care about brewing and you said well for me there is only one and that's how the I just got really interested only crude which of course the Guessers guys all but in 1986 became a fantastic holiday and I know that holiday special exactly I know you want to talk about the narrator of that because in a stroke of casting to say the great Boris Karloff I don't mean that he of course he was right and tell us about your love for. A couple absolutely true to the book amazingly so that's what Chuck's really don't want you know I mean I think I'm selling something anything yes I'm off to do that I just I couldn't find I looked and I could not find anything that gave me information how did they get him to do that I honestly think it was. The 2 best voices of that period they're all Ravenscroft who did the song and Boris Karloff or Carla their soft voice that he can make he can go from a range of emotions beautiful when he's being you know the grandson he's making the Grinch sounds. Oh I fully agree with that and this was later in his career later in his life and so his his voice had a sort of a different temper then if you watch him from stuff you know 20 years earlier you know really you know then on hard times and things like that and so Chuck and he said Ok but he brought all of his talents. Well do that kind of thing I think Laurence Olivier comes to mind for years he would take just any old movie part because you know starting a theater will you know just take whatever comes up but I think you know part of the issue of Boris Karloff is he people who like I never connected him to Frankenstein and the movies Ok had done earlier until I was probably in high school and that's when I really thought that was a really important thing for me because I got to monsters through their ass it's a great point and I'm gratified to hear you put him in the same class as a Libya because they were both great actors although I think Karloff never perhaps he has now but I think frequently during his life in his career maybe didn't get the respect that he did well he was so typecast right. Because because he was such a presence a powerful presence you know that and you know when he 1st came to the states he didn't actually speak English that's right so it took him years to master the language he was on Broadway I mean it's not that he didn't. Do it I mean he he was a relatively complete actor but in the in the movies he was typecast and then you know and it's interesting because in those movies the Frankenstein movies . They created a monster not in the novel you know it's a completely different vision of the monster but it was so powerful his portrayal and. That people think of that and if people read it will see that those moved out now because in the book The Creature is to look. Right he makes a great great deal and he is more of a gargoyle type of creature than that but the bolts on the net which is what everyone thinks right exactly that right I mean it's Mary Shelley were alive now she would that might be what she thinks of as well I think way back through How the Grinch Stole Christmas and I wonder now that Cobalt had also been the host for it was what 2 or 3 seasons and you know an anthology series called Thriller right right remember that what I thought when Doc wanted to hoover so I guess what I want rebuttal marathon dry I think that's true I think that's there but also you know here you know he has he has a narrator of course just yes I know I remember that I have a clear vision and insight that you had about how they did replicate a view of the drawing style the illustration style of Seuss book to the screen and I really think that's kind of the key thing about that I mean that's why the no disrespect to Jim Carrey because I like him a lot but that's why the film version of The Grinch didn't work so well for me because there is the artwork and it's Dr Seuss and certain things just look like Dr Seuss and they went to great lengths to make the characters in the film you know looking in so it didn't quite have the same. Resonance and power and then of course there's some goofy stuff that they added that's not in the book. For the holidays and I don't mean that and that kind of I don't know it watered down the story a little bit to me in it and. I don't think I really needed a Grinch back story you know I'm fine with the Grinch and yes I think yes in the sense yes a little Cindy-Lou was not the same on the screen there was no denying them soon for a. Listen if you're going to do. Another one of the great voices voice actors of all time or you really that's you and you said it's just that so I wrote that my childhood trying to do every voice that you can for a did you know you know and which Hazel in the any 2 notes. Well. Course Rocky that's coral in Rocky and Bullwinkle I was searching for referred to as like the female Mel Blanc Yes absolutely I would say you know Blink is the female female yarn I got for you right yeah I mean really since her only only really trust McNeil comes to mind as you know of female voice actor who is that flexible and that has that much doubt right or perhaps or perhaps in the current day and then she Cartwright most famous for forcing version Bart Simpson on the Simpsons but has done a wide variety of other parents also Hank Azaria who also works on The Simpsons He's just amazing here actually during recent years yeah. I wonder if they often speak to people about what Jackie and other thoughts on how the Grinch Stole Christmas I remember I came to it through the holiday special before even though we had the books that's when I had somehow managed to miss miss and so we saw because it was a it was a holiday classic We watch it every year and we watch it every year along with some of the others Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer is very rusty Frosty the Frosty the Snowman a Charlie Brown Taurus and those are those 4 were in our house where. We're just there were a point of view and all the time yeah absolutely those great you know Rudolph and all those great animated series that you know if you grew up in the sixty's or seventy's that's right it was appointment you know way it went is it coming on this year and you had you know plan around it and you let me know yeah that's you know and possibly the happiest day of my life was when Jefferson gave me all of the Christmas specials one year on v.h.s. So you know this is been a while but he gave me all of the Christmas specials on v.h.s. And the one that killed me was the Grinch because I realized I could watch it anytime I wanted to in the middle of July without commercial. Interruption Yeah yeah and you know it really it's kind of after all this I think your presence I certainly do you know yeah I know that magazine like we do now Ok Ok not great and yet I think I just heard in this area and last year I was really unhappy because the b.h.a. Last year I didn't get my little fix so now I'm going to have to get time to fill Yeah Jacki my question to this you've heard you've heard of this device called the Black I don't have the Blu ray version of this we just have the d.v.d. Version and I'm thinking maybe there might be the answer to your question yeah come over to my place I'll come over your place at some. It's just lovely what they've done with them with Frosty and with Rudolph and with just one of the things I noticed the 1st time I watched like the Rankin Bass so that Rudolph and when you look at these in h.d. You can see the texture it's fantastic of the things that if you like casually you might see a little handprints and I just know yeah and can I say to the comedians and grumpy Gus was a good show and I made a you know these these are classics for a reason and it's because it's great storytelling acting drawing everything and as Diane says now especially you can study the style and the techniques as you see it which just enhances the experience you know yeah so I think it's like any it's like any anything film literature play about it the more you know about about it about the author about it the more enjoyment you're going to get out of it well and the more you appreciate the not just the talent but the effort to craft the hard absolutely is an absolute right and you know I mean it's that stop you know stop action animation that we really don't see anymore and you know I think it's interesting how our perception of things has changed because every point is that I'm just so not impressed by c.g.i. Because cave it I've seen it it can do anything it's magical. And but it but but but especially at this point in time after sort of the revolution sort of gotten to us by what I want to say drastic Park in 1903 sort of starting getting the whole she bang you know I mean there were earlier versions of her but that no I mean it's best when it's unobtrusive it's best when you don't notice when you don't notice it exactly right well I can think of one example that you might get caught in the story and that's the nightmare before Christmas 'd Oh yes Terence wonderful wonderful artistry it's just fantastic and it is and the lightning are mad that's one of the things that I just heard. About the movie is the way that thing is lit and I have it says. It's here your heart out with light it yes I mean it's you know really how I mean Polar Express is kind of that way to go out in this with the animation style yes it is it's cool you know right well you know and that's the Polar Express sort of and I've always felt that a sort of Robert Zemeckis who was the director right and Tom Hanks is in it but it's sort of the Mecca says I think is taking animation and melding up with some law of action and doing it in a very interesting way but again with a very good story because also what makes the Hans try and that you know Tim Burton you know hired great writers and wrote heard on them and wanted them yelling we need to make this you know as good as we can possibly make it you know and it ended up being better than what about 9 tenths of everything else that came out I was right you know. And you know the fact that it's kind of become you know sort of a cultural touchstone you know you know it's find an entire line and you know Christmas I I cannot graffiti and I get these things all the time that I'll see something and I got 0 that's that's him Berton drawing that they have me made into something else or what I'm going to write you know he's just popping up everywhere but I mean if you consider that the time that they came out he was on then I mean you could say he's still with us but he was on that incredible incredible run that he was. That me and the 1989 Right right that's my favorite band and I said you know I'm just still in it I mean we've talked about this and it's still an astonishing piece of work it really is and it really holds up 30 years where you know you know and. Own parents article I must note that in our last episode Also I forgot to mention the person who's played the role on screen more than any other Mark Hamill who voiced her on a major I don't want to go game to these wonderful Yeah and you should check out I'm not going to name this person it's a person that may reside in the Oval Office but this person Mark Hamill has occasionally taken to Twitter and other places to read this person's tweets in the voice of his job. So that's wonderful that's a wonderful. Thing about it to your friends yeah I mean I look forward to seeing Mr Hamill back on screen in the rise of Scott Walker very very soon but do you go back to this anything else about how the Grinch Stole Christmas other animated version it's just called the Grinch and seen this all I haven't seen it you know and Angela Lansbury and some other you know know people at Universal voices and it's sort of computer animation that's my understanding I haven't seen it I thought it was at all or it will go beyond the 1966 it was one of the what we call the Jim Carrey version of mention years ago I really like Ron Howard almost it's like that you know don't tweak with something if it's perfectly good right but I don't think so exactly and I think you know they kind of film issue because the cat in the house with Mike Myers was a complete meltdown of epic proportions and you know Alec Baldwin Surely you can say I'm a disaster Yeah I know it's hard to find and I think that's part of it is that because you know those books if you cannot it's not necessarily the sort of story that you can expand on right us but I agree it should be somebody should if they want to do things like that or episodes of the t.v. Series right the Lorax brilliant all the cat in the hat right now not getting green eggs and I don't mean I think you know I learned something about the Grinch movie that I heard of an interview with Baker the special effects secretary there you know who you know the successor to Harryhausen really you know the stand which was in charge of the makeup of the special effects makeup for Grinch and he said it was a pitch battle from the start because the producers didn't want Jim Carrey they just want to put green makeup on because they said look it's it's a movie star and we want to see the movie star and Baker argued consistently No you can't do you know they're going to need this. Not Jim Carrey in green makeup it's got to be the Grinch you know and Jim Carrey lost and and Baker won of course it was still this and it's the same thing but the who was and all the you know the sort of had to fight for the fit in that wasn't what they were clued into so I'm guessing that Howard had to sort of fight the same battle you know with dogs or die and I think it's a great point you take a little book an hour and a half or an hour a 40 minutes and it's just filler like those as an l sketches that they try to turn into films that you know it's a great concept and I think of night at the Roxbury which stars one of our dearest friend that's right do you write says in that film no no yes yes and no and you know that was a great concept and it you know it's funny is on that in 5 minutes they're not you know. They're you know this way yeah yeah and I think that's part of it is that action to the word the word to the action and so in this case if you've only got 10 pages don't try to make a 2 hour film or if it has not that it can't be done perhaps but it must be done well but they're going to have to otherwise you end up I don't think that Kerry is particularly good in that version of The Grinch and I don't think he's particularly funny and I think it's probably because not only of the make up of that he was being much funnier and other things and oh yeah absolutely and also although I although I've never thought he was he was never the funniest guy around for me but I think he was I think he was Miss served. Yeah which is why Mr they do it you know well to get back to the voice thing Cumberbatch. Well and also let's just go back in again just praise for Mr Coffee it's time to remember going to Karloff was because you can actually read the credit there is there and there's no more it's called and I remember saying to let my mother I grandmother Boris Karloff Frankenstein Frankenstein What's that. Leave us alone go away. Well can I can I bring up some classics Oh please some film classics here because they're going up with perhaps a holiday of Christmas theme. I think of a couple of things 1st white Christmas. From 54 and and it's you know it's great tunes Ok of course it's kind of hokey and kind of corny but that is the point as it is I'm always thinking that it's the next it's being Crosby but you know. It's also Danny Kaye Yes And Danny Kaye I think is a forgotten what a genius genius he was do everything he could you could dance saying that's right act you could do my physical comedian and he or his films get he pretty much steals white Christmas you know and try and that's what it's great great music you know because I don't I normally white bread Christmas because it's a movie as holiday end if you're like me and this was 54 but still are being burned in music being patriotic you know that there though. It's a wonderful kind of family movie that's right that's right I always tell kids you know you have to watch this movie and they say why and I said because this is why we have a lot of the traditional there you know I don't think I thought the response was going to be because I said so yeah but it you know it is it kind of encapsulates that you know home for the holiday is the snow in the heart and the fire and all the things that we don't have here and. So yeah well so you know another one I want to bring up that's long been forgotten and the original Babes in Toyland real Wow 1934 in the world and hearty yes and oh my goodness it's just it's just. You know it's black and white you know it's all but. It's sort of. A foundation stone if you will for the Christmas movie genre Yes And of course it was remade. Any time I can you know promote one of the old movie comedians or comedy to. I'm all for it and so I think that one is a cool watch and the right one and it's also in the tradition of sort of the Ziegfeld Follies Yes right there I saw those great you know those just great dance moves pageantry Yeah right so right there right yeah well there was also from the 37 and 38 a version of The Nutcracker Suite that you know yes also last night you know dipping dipping their toes in the same pot that's right that's right. So I doze or those are 2 I want to bring up but here's something. Also a little shop around the corner you know horse you know which is charming moved from 1940 Jimmy Stewart Yes you know of course it was remade 2 You've Got Mail which is right possibly my favorite of all of the good we know me I'm sick rom com of that era but if you try to well you've got mail that's what a Nancy Meyers special is yeah right I mean it's the chemistry between Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan Right right right yeah that's also a good lesson in that if you're going to remake something don't I mean you can't ever do what you can't ever do what Gus Van Sant didn't try to do I shot my shot remake of Psycho Yeah that's a disaster waiting not an Arab allies are always there that I did and with that Myers decide am I right about there was no martyrs you know So 'd that's the writer and the director that she decided I'm going to take this premise of this general idea and then I'm going to update it and again you know it comes you know the old because you have a principle that you know if you get the script in order and you cast it right you've got 80 years already but exactly and then it's refuting it and then yeah and then get out of the way the actors like Right yeah and I do I love that and the Bishop's Wife Oh yes there isn't only Goldie I don't know what you 3 made very well the reference wife with Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston court reference wife like that. But maybe it's really it's really about you know yeah she was trying to remember the name of the remake thinking you know that's that's another wink you know and all the that came back and they had a nice. Sort of modern dating well in the old one is also what they're I mean perhaps they still RINGBACK use this but in those days they would use almost as a genre that was called a weepie That's right I mean you know I mean you know if you read you right that's right you know the handkerchief comes out right now you know sort of get that box of tissues ready because you're going to need them but I found. Well I want one more because we're just talking about remaking the classics. Here's what I think they did a nice job on Scrooged. From 88 with a Bill Murray. Would do it you know the retelling of that story to Christmas can Bobcat Goldthwait Oh Oh Oh let him have it this you know if you're on Guam when Bobcat was on you know how much Bob got let go yeah and every time I watch that movie I just think I know that guy. Is that I'm sure you were issuing an open invitation for him to return every single day but I don't have time coming back you know you were happy to have had a great time whether money was here 20 years ago or so but I think church is a terrific one and you know that brings us I mean we could do a whole show I mean there's actually a guy who wrote it he's written an entire book just on a Christmas Carol and it's adaptation and there are so many and that's mine and you know and the scrooge the I was there some film from the 1951 it's sort of you know I don't look for me for me the best that I've ever seen is the 1904 television version story George c. Scott it's got my favorite fabulous on it and that was followed up in the number 2 slot for me with the 1990 and see version storing the grapes are Patrick Stewart Oh now that's something that's I like that one better actually but for a lot more if you can find me no matter where I want to say I'm 6 or 7 years old that's what you he did a one man show in which he did the Chris Yeah and he did all of all the characters and yes I listen to it or if you've seen footage of it well it's extraordinary writing as you are right now isn't it that's how things are going as well yeah and that was the good lead into the thing that I just caught this movie the other day it's a 2017 movie called The man who invented Christmas starring That is a Dan Stevens and Charles Dickens is all right yeah written by Susan Boyle you know had. Father and Christopher Plummer insurance and my calmer lays the body mind of Scrooge and. It's basically the story of Charles Dickens writing The Christmas Carol and all of these characters inhabit his writing room and they sit around and they heckle him while he tries to write write the characters it's beautiful it's really I'm not saying this father you know sets up this whole relationship like if you know anything about Charles Dickens' life you know that he was a workhouse kid for a while and that is you know father was a loser in a dropped him off of the workhouse and so we see that play out and then we see how that informs everybody in his book and my favorite scene is where he's reading pages of it and his little housemaid is sitting there and. She just runs out of the room and t.v. . Saying that we have to kill tiny tiny tim has to die that the man who invented Christmas Cyrus. And I would also going to us speaking of sort of on screen depictions of the 3rd episode of the renewed the regenerated Dr Who is titled The under oath and the doctor that night Dr played by Christopher Eccleston in this companion Rose Tyler played by Billy Piper go back to 869 and they see Dickens on the stage plenty as played by the incomparable Simon Callow you know what is it an actor performs I guess for an actor speaks and speaks I guess and then of the autobiography of Dickens and they wrote the script hoping to get him to do it and he did it and he's fabulous and it's also about sort of what can we call them gashes vampires running around. Trying to set a low point in this life and this sort of the popular regenerates I mean stories I don't write these books and they have missed seeing what you think is a ghost but is really an extraterrestrial Dickens. Well that's kind of the man who who invented Christmas that's kind of Christopher I know it's you call him the ghost of the spirit of Scrooge who haunts Dickens merrily response and all the time yes until. He figures out how to get rid of him until Dickens figures out how to get Scrooge out of his head which is the key to the story the story and it's a it's beautifully turned it really is and. Well I can't recommend you know Dan Stevens probably he's probably best known to some of our listeners as either his role in Downton Abbey. Or effects has a series called Legion in which he was the lead character and he's one inch wonderful not playing the character These playing is the son of Charles Xavier of the eczema. And the series as the character is really a 3 C's and how is he doing and it's hallucinatory it's wonderfully done and he's fantastic in that and many people who have never seen anything else don't realize that he's actually there and apparently the man who invented Christmas is based on a book that I didn't know about either but let us let's stand afford was the author Diane you're giving me a syllabus for the. Sort of no no no no no all right now and now Jackie do you have any other favorite holiday specials I have a few selections but I want everyone to jump in before I know because I don't get the revenue stream narrated by Burl Ives. I'm trying to come up with that in my head there are some things that I prefer to read only because I was introduced to them as a kid and Twas the Night Before Christmas and when things I just prefer to be sure of what it is that I I know that's not very easy 970 is animated version of Twas the Night Before Christmas that I remember from a kid you know being a kid and I just remember thinking even as a child that there was a fairly cheesy rendition of what should I much about in production but we also forgot the Muppets Christmas Carol course because you know that by now I love up so much that's wonder Michael Caine Michael Caine and sure that's right and yeah and I don't think there's one how much you skate playing Scrooge again Ok you know me too right I mean well you know and you know that it's a very faithful it does treatment of the book it is you know so many of the versions of Christmas Carol are you know tweaky and I but I think the Muppets do a pretty good job of sticking to the story right when I was because I imagine I read that book I used to review that every Christmas now it's like every 2 years but and the George c. Scott version which is directed by Claude Donner and adapted by Roger here since it's very close and again Stewart is wonderful as Scrooge and they surround him with fantastic actors as well so. Those are many good ones well my friends I have a couple of things viral suggest because we're just past. Gluttony day for me there's one thing I watch every day and I have since I saw it 1st in 1970 and that is I would consider it John Hughes is a masterpiece he has a masterpiece and that is Planes Trains and Automobiles absolutely great it's simply astonishing and if you read the available version of the screenplay which he was when he was writing and I didn't he. Sort of famously wrote it in like 2 weeks it's pitched more as almost a drama more than a comedy and it's much longer and then they cut things out but in casting I mean you want to talk about that again of genius of casting putting Steve Martin and John Candy in a film together the only the only film that they ever made together because kid came out $97.00 and John he died in 1905 and you know so it's I mean it's so sad John I was a big John Candy fan what a town and what a great town have us in this film and the story itself I mean it's a very unusual kind of story if you to fully rendered unusable for anyone I don't know if you live on Guam and we have to take this right now you're all live the planes trains I mean I think yeah I just you know going to the airport that sort of thing one of the reasons I like it is that the portion of it that is set in St Louis was actually filmed at the time or an international effort and I was like that Ok And and of course there's one scene in which we can't play on the air you don't know what I'm talking about right and which Steve Martin's character Neil page who would be correct to call him a press. Yeah yeah yeah the plot of the film for those who haven't seen it if you haven't seen it is that you know a Steve Martin character and you know Page plays a Manhattan advertising you think he is leaving leaving Manhattan to try to fly back to Chicago and he is hooked up with a person I mean where does he come up with this person in Dell Griffin ring ring. Was hysterical really absolutely and so as they're flying Chicago was snowed in and so they're just they're diverted to Topeka and they have to stay in a hotel room and you know antics ensue but it's always boring very deeply into the characters in a way that you may suspect when you're 1st watching it but that when he when he was brings it home at the very end you know it just really kicks in the chance kills if you have an egg. Actor of Candy's carrying right who is now there's a funny man but is able to play this character who's been covering all this debris tragedy had a great debt to rather than struck me if I'm wrong but isn't this like Steve Martin's 1st straight man role because I'm trying to think of yeah I guess you're probably right is he previously was sort of featured as the comedian right right in there in the role that used to I think your pennies and have them yeah I think what I mean I don't I can't remember anything that he did before this when he was supposed to be there the straight man right and I just remember thinking when I 1st saw it I was like how is that going to work he's not always been wrong about anything but it's tremendous and you can really you can really see the beginnings of what Steve Martin turns into in terms of an actor in a performer and maybe even a playwright in a writer for what it's worth you know Ok yeah but you know I know an office and now a novelist. But I do think that's kind of one of those. Kind of quintessential John Hughes films and you know his other great Christmas movie home a lot is Right well I mean it works and it works exactly well and we have to remember that when when when planes trains and all of those came out in 1970 and he was having what you could some of the films that he had made before and after that Ferris Bueller's Day Off Adventures in Babysitting. She's having a baby 16 can 16 balls I mean just all over you know fantastic the progress quality breakfast what I mean my younger sister when the breakfast club came out on the I forget how many tapes my mother had to buy because she would watch it so much because and especially having gone through it in those days is that you know somehow I was able to capture not what all teenagers were going through but certainly what white teeth were going yeah for some reason he really had his finger on the pulse and you know it was interesting that during the cabin I hearings I read a lot of stuff about John Hughes movies. Ok you know really what it what it what I sad sad commentary I mean right now you know we're horrifying kind of collision of information there and I just thought yeah I did that things that he sort of touched on were the things of my generational memory Yes And you know it's that Gen x. Thing that I think you just got right well and also you know sort of the doldrums of the Reagan years he you know he got a recycling going back and revisiting them having lived through that. I'm astonished by then I remember seeing the theater with my mother and as you say Jeff it's unusual it doesn't govern in a saccharine way that you think that one that's right 1 and the ending of it is still one of the most affected I still screen it and teach it because I was young but you have a sense of completeness and the thing right when you mention director Christmas vacation Christmas being only downhill and one of the reasons I love it is because it it captures my sense of. When we would have our whole family together for the holidays and it's always supposed to be you know a wonderful time and that's what they say in memory and then you go back and like it wasn't They're great in because Chevy Chase is character Clark Griswold many of you have heard me say that I'm just stealing from John Hughes in which he asked his father Dad you know our holiday or our holidays or family how it's always been just just such disasters terrible all the time how did you Jack. When I was a kid I was like what's going on in them and then I realized why so many of my aunts and uncles if it wasn't Jack Daniels let's just say that the eggnog was not just you know there was more so I just I just I just it was not just sugar and cream hope it's a little more knowledge and I don't think you know about like the kinds of things that you know you see as a child and then you know you try to make sense of you know as an adult you know I didn't say never came to life things never came to my house and my my whole thing watching the Home Alone the 1st time was like that was my secret childhood fantasy that everyone would just you know leave me there and I'd have the whole house to myself for a few days you know and I thought well this kid's doing it all right I mean you should invite friends over there oh well I think that also proves is that is that so then tattle that you can mail an adolescent and you can make films for this what we call it now this demographic but they can appeal to many people you know and so and so and he's one of those people that I think he was frequently in his day sort of dismissed as a lightweight you know general but successful right right people won't really stalls or that we go through and I mean I just the other day I had a student ask him in class are you drunk because he said we have watched an episode in my crime fiction class occasionally in ways and I said you know this is great but prepare yourself this is a little unfiltered it's right here yeah I'm going to say Well I think I'd like to go live in the 1980 s. It's like are you drunk. That's the amount of money you have to spend on America. Yes Well we're talking about the eighty's Can I bring up a couple other things giving movies please you know I'm going up maybe one of my my favorite my favorite Christmas for me Ok good in the it is because well just a couple of real briefly and these are 2 that people don't I don't think of as hers Oh yes by what do you how I'm going to say which is which takes place over to Thanksgiving that's right right and the other one is the big chill which is you know one of those movies one of that seminal movie everybody in that cast you know that they were already known but in of and I know I can't tell if they're saying. More than words can words count of the fabulous Right yeah I think about who was in that cast Jeff Goldblum that was my introduction to Jeff Oh yeah I know you know and love here you play Eric a place well yes I think close Kevin Kline I mean John her you know her. William William had a very very and Kevin Costner who was cut out you know played that ball that's right looking out of the West and that he did in 80 mile runs right and I was also Silverado house one of my favorite actors I national trend you know get giving him a line in which you know he pulls out you don't want to be deviled I think about it also sometimes sort of that's that's really what sort of some of the why are you fighting over something that was Jack Daniels because it was I would say that I said Ok one more brief for your consideration haha O'Reilly but that's on my list again you know it is so wonderful and it's just for Christopher Guest it's one of the handful of of absolutely brilliant films that he made that he did with that stock company with his stock company of players and well and you know if you are at all theater person or into but if you even if you're not it's just and so it's great 'd comic actors in it. And really blame them for poor I mean that's right and they finally decide it's going to be home for Thanksgiving that's. Well I know what poor I meant I never know that they were actors you think it was that that's the way the scripts just dial right it all began was of course. There is I don't want to. Write and that also brings to mind what it was a film actually directed by Jodie Foster called home for the holidays Yeah that's right it's also a very very you know sort of the family coming together but one that I that I would be remiss if I don't mention it because again having been born in 72 Cleveland based on the works of the great Jean Shepherd which I just found a couple of days ago that are kind of dot org From 1960 I've already downloaded all this 196-667-6897 extension 071 archive dot org accorded the genes from a quarter mile but because before Spalding Gray and a bunch of other peace storytellers and and that film I just you know I don't I cut the cord 6 or 7 years because I don't actually have cable t.v. And yes he still pets will play 24 in court all right again Christmas Eve and Christmas now and talk about a cult classic Yeah it's not just a Christmas classic in the leg lamp the leg lamp itself the old man played by during the gap Oh yeah if you drive through my sister's neighborhood in Cleveland you'll see a half a notion and then you've convinced me that something there's another thing I thought they just shot it you know there's like a shrine Yeah you know it's open for tourism you know all year long and they get hundreds of people a day they line up on the street outside to walk through the house right and it's really you know it's and if anybody has who grew up in the cold and was ever convinced to put your tongue all right Ok well when I saw the reason I actually I actually wondered when I was a kid when I was like 11 years old is this the documentary. Having grown up in small town I want and not quite the rust belt but near the rust and I think my mother considered it that's you know especially she loved it but she considered that a public service announcement. That you send your kids what we tell you that is right that we put your eye out with us maybe get I got my whole life. Childhood I think that they in tap salute so brilliantly but they also internationally those moments of like the parent hysteria that goes on trying to get Christmas perfect for the kind of hapless you know they're not clueless and they're not portrayed as like idiots but they're portrayed as people who are just overwhelmed by the system of Christmas you know and I just really like the families you know dynamic. I think yeah I think that's absolutely the case and you know and it was Melinda Dillon played the mother in there she did it wonderfully in the only thing I can Steven Spielberg's close encounters of through college right here she comes so you know that's just a fact. And of course in the scene today it is going to lead turned into a writer producer so I don't know yeah he's going to get one and when he shows up well you know still a fine actor I would say you know I don't I haven't seen him a lot but I don't remember having seen him stuff and he does well you know all the loyal standby like that that you know they've been around for a long time it's like 34th Street you know how it's been since time of us and as I tell you yes right television and then you kind of see that same riff coming out you know in t.v. Show episodes and things like that so I think you know things like that same deal with it's a wonderful life that concept of what would the world be like without I know how far you are and all of the things that yeah I mean I read it you know also it's a wonderful lot of sometimes people who you mis remembered or otherwise and one time I haven't watched the full version because the version they had on television for years was kind to kind Right right right right and they think Oh Frank Capra this was just a guy again it was like using he was a lightweight and I think that because someone was doing comedy Well you know that old saw about the best comedy actually comes out of pain absolutely we're still here you know and Kemper understood that but when you watch it it is a very sort of dark and depressing story to a certain point the the even the bad guy of it Mr Potter gets away with it in that he is not funny it's a social commentary about you know you know you know it wasn't planned as a christmas I don't know that it wasn't written or presents a Christmas because nobody saw it as a Christmas right movie it wasn't until like cable basically when basic cable going to sort of it's so severely right because I'm the only one. Yeah and you know I think it's interesting point people almost discount them and you know they just go oh yeah well whatever I don't need to watch that but I really do things like Charlie Brown. Christmas even if you think you've seen it watch it again and again because that almost never made it to the air in 1965 because of Linus's speech where he goes out and basically reads from the Bible and people say kids are going to want to watch this and they say well I'm not Ok we know you're not by somebody harming but it's reading passages that talk about how we may be calling this Christmas but that this is for everyone of multiple 50 right that it works for many people and that was not a message that some of the network executives wanted to know you're right they thought they had disaster on their hands until it went on the television and people actually watched in the notices were superb and well there was just you know the Charlie Brown Charlie Brown things giving too they were right they were so well done so charming right it's the Great Pumpkin Charlie that's a great yeah it's you know find that Easter eggs are only what you you know if you tell the story well. Then it's going to work and the thing about Charlie Brown of course the whole of the innocence that kids and it's to get a sense of their charm right well and a Charlie Brown Christmas has no adults in it and yeah that's right you know it's all about you know it's all about the kids and the nicest part about it for me is that it ends with everybody standing or every even if you haven't seen everybody knows what a Charlie Brown Brown Christmas tree is you know that's what you know even if you've never seen you've never seen them know that according to I forget who was saying this it wasn't Charles Schultz it was someone that said that and that special pretty much brought in and the aluminum Christmas tree things and. Yeah I don't know if you want to let me just be a story but it's a great story isn't it well you know that it always struck me because I had never seen an aluminum Christmas tree except in right I asked my mother about that when she goes You're not missing. I'm. Going to involve right my friends do you believe that another our history just already got her for the fastest fantastic. Well you know well again wonderful holiday last week I want to wish everyone a week of course we will come back to you in the summer but you know wish everyone a wonderful Kwanzaa Happy Kwanzaa Happy Hanukkah Happy Festivus for the rest of us and for Star Trek fans whatever the cling on Celebrate I'm all right you know it's a party. All right well thank you thank you sir this is wonderful thank you I have a long list. And we have some work to do and last but not least we always want to thank our support producer Bob Marley himself Dave Lopez who's here he's looking a little elf and today I don't think our production. So far has not brought in the bad sweaters that we saw on that there's still hope everyone had more of less. And you will hear us again next thank you. All for day and thank you for listening to 89.3 g. I got your source for n.p.r. 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